data protection

It is of course clear to us that data protection is probably the biggest issue in Industry 4.0. In many studies, it clearly cites the disadvantages of Industry 4.0. Since networked machines produce a large amount of data and this is to be sent across the world, it must logically be adequately protected.
On the one hand, there is the risk of misuse of this data and, on the other hand, the encryption and protection of this data could incur high and hardly calculable costs for a company. The question: is it safe now? never actually be answered.

Lack of acceptance

You know: What use is the best tool if nobody is using it? On the one hand, customers should be mentioned here who do not want to use the great tools and dashboards and, on the other hand, also suppliers who do not offer suitable interfaces and the expensive infrastructure becomes useless, so to speak. This can be a danger that every manager should be aware of. An acceptance test should therefore be carried out urgently.

High costs

And what does that cost me now? Service providers for Industry 4.0 will often hardly be able to answer this question. In addition to the tool costs, you can expect consulting and implementation costs, which are hardly calculable. If you look at the studies, these are currently the biggest obstacles in Industry 4.0 for SMEs.

Rushed implementation and expectations

Another point is a hasty implementation. In addition to the human factor, production processes also have to be fundamentally changed and any processes with suppliers and possibly even with customers have to be changed. These are important points in Industry 4.0. However, this point seems to be given less weight, since medium-sized companies are already opposing Industry 4.0 with great wait and see.
However, I think that it certainly takes a lot of planning to really implement Industry 4.0 and not just introduce a tool quickly. The expectations shouldn’t be too high either. It won’t solve all problems. This point is arguably the more significant in the wait-and-see attitude or disappointment of some entrepreneurs.

Human factor

What would a factory be without people? Probably quite lonely and highly automated. Since the factory without people is currently still a vision of the future, managers have to pick up their employees and train them in the new possibilities and tools.
On the other hand, IT-savvy employees are also needed, who will be difficult to find in view of the shortage of skilled workers. Often these have to be poached and are accordingly expensive. You can find out how you can still get some skilled workers in my article on skills shortages.
Reading tip: Shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized businesses!

Conclusion: Disadvantages of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is on everyone’s lips and presents numerous risks. So it is logical why the German middle class is still waiting. In addition to data protection, high costs, exaggerated expectations, a lack of acceptance and the human factor, as always, not everything is only associated with risks.
Reading tip: Book tips on Industry 4.0
So there are not only disadvantages of Industry 4.0, but there are also numerous opportunities in Industry 4.0, which you should weight with the risks. Therefore, read the next to them as well Advantages of Industry 4.0.

Der Beitrag Risks and disadvantages of Industry 4.0 erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Transparency and communication

The various interfaces and reports as well as the real-time notifications through, among other things, RFID chips, can create greater transparency in the supply chain. This also increases communication, as reports are sent automatically and employees can permanently track production in other locations in real time.

Simplification of processes

Processes can be simplified with new software and hardware. For example, parts can be ordered more easily using an ERP tool and forecasts and reports can be accessed more easily using a document management system.

Automated processes

You know it: processes are carried out manually over and over again. This can be tiring, cause mistakes and demotivate employees. This can be circumvented by automating processes.
Good employees could also devote themselves to other tasks and improve production instead of just working in it. With the help of automatic processes, employee satisfaction and efficiency can be increased.

Forecasts and Big Data

All of these software tools produce data. Data that can be used to make forecasts and predictions. Well-founded decisions can be made on the basis of this. These can also be used to initiate processes such as ordering new goods or alerting for dispatch.

Efficiency

The efficiency gained can increase adherence to deadlines and with the help of software tools, on the one hand, more products can be produced faster and, on the other, customers can be satisfied. Remember that you could show your customers a dashboard by tracking your parts live or by conveniently ordering them via an online shop.

Business models

With the help of new possibilities, it is possible to react better to changed customer conditions. By partnering with startups and other manufacturers, new synergies and products can be created.
Other services such as a fee for a dashboard or the use of the live tracker to manufacture the parts can also be charged. You can also sell your own developments, such as production capacity control, to other companies as a consultancy or service.
A final example is the opening of a manufacturer platform. On this, production companies can jointly develop and offer services and products digitally. For the customer, everything in one place, anytime and anywhere!

New career opportunities

With the help of the new human-machine cooperation, humans can serve as supervisors and managers in production and will also be challenged. Instead of monotonous operation of machines, creativity is required and constant training is necessary.
In this way, an employee can constantly develop and help shape the IT landscape and digital processes. All of this can keep employees in the company longer and especially attract skilled workers from metropolises, especially in rural regions.
Tip: Book suggestions too Industry 4.0

Conclusion: advantages of Industry 4.0

The advantages of Industry 4.0 are obvious, but there still seems to be a high level of uncertainty and fear of high investment costs in German companies. In this text, cases were shown that Industry 4.0 can bring.
In addition to greater efficiency and big data, employees can also be more satisfied and new opportunities can be offered. Synergies between manufacturers and new business models are also conceivable.
I hope to be able to provide some food for thought with the articles and look forward to your comments. But as always, these advantages also have disadvantages, which should be considered. You should therefore also read the Disadvantages of Industry 4.0.

Der Beitrag Advantages of Industry 4.0 – more than just a marketing term? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

What is Industry 4.0

There are numerous definitions of Industry 4.0 and I also ask myself: What is Industry 4.0? So says, for example BDI : Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After mechanization (Industry 1.0), mass production (Industry 2.0) and automation (Industry 3.0), the Internet of Things and Services is now finding its way into production. Industry 4.0 technologies enable outstanding growth opportunities and competitive advantages for Germany as a business location. Forecasts assume that companies can use Industry 4.0 to increase their productivity by around 30 percent.
The Gabler Business Lexicon sees it more as a marketing term: “Industry 4.0” is a marketing term that is also used in science communication and stands for a “future project” by the German federal government. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the individualization or hybridization of products and the integration of customers and business partners into business processes.
That too Magazine viernull describes the development of Industry 4.0 with a historical development: “Industry 4.0” stands for the “fourth industrial revolution”. Before that, there must have been three other revolutions – at least this is what the creators of the term suggest: “Industry 1.0” means the era of mechanics that began in the 18th century, “Industry 2.0” refers to the era of electronics (20th century). Century) and “Industry 3.0” according to this logic stands for the increasing automation of industry through the use of office IT since the 1970s.
So it seems that this is the fourth industrial revolution and there have been three more. I have summarized examples and metaphors for this in the following illustration.

Components of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is also a kind of collective term for many services and products. On the side of the BDI I have summarized these in the following figure. Certainly these are not 100% complete, but mostly the core aspects. Since it is primarily a term from the government, I mainly used the government pages and the BDI as sources.

With Social machines says the BDI: As in social networks on the Internet, intelligent machines exchange information with one another. You can organize yourself independently and coordinate processes and appointments together.
Global Facilities says according to the BDI: Machines do not only exchange data within a production facility. A company’s machines are also networked with systems from suppliers and customers. If a supplier fails, alternative suppliers are analyzed in real time with regard to their capacity utilization or costs and automatically commissioned.
Of the Augmented operator means people as “watchdogs”. So says the BDI: In the smart factory, people remain a central part of production. As an “augmented operator”, he controls and monitors the production processes in the production network.
Smart Products means that every produced part has a chip with it, which contains or sends information about it. V irtual production thinks that there will be abstract and virtual images of factories. Unfortunately, there is hardly a clear example on the subject and I am currently not in a position to describe it better. If you have anything about it, feel free to write it in the comments.
Smart Services thinks that in the future billions of intelligent products will be connected to the Internet during their service life and huge amounts of data ( Big data ) about your own operating and product status in a data cloud.
Industry 4.0 largely stands for networking and the intelligence of machines. It is hardly an argument that this fact leads to a lot of data and that the term big data is therefore closely linked to Industry 4.0 as well as topics relating to data protection. Read more on the Page of the BDI and definitely take a look at my book suggestions Digitization in medium-sized companies .

Examples of Industry 4.0

But what exactly is Industry 4.0 and what is not? In the following I have looked for examples and show some fictional examples as well as real scenarios from Bremen.

That’s what he says Industry signpost : An example of Industry 4.0 is when “The parts know who they are”. This “intelligent factory” is called “Open Integrated Factory Showcase. It shows the networking of production and IT. The special thing about the factory is that the workpieces inform the machine how they are to be processed.

As an example of this scenario, you also state that a machine can produce 16 different variants of the product. The workpieces contain information about the production process. The parts know who they are and can talk to the system. The parts always go to the correct station and tell it: “I am this part, in this version and now please process me correctly”. So you can use Industry 4.0 to produce a wide variety of product variants on one production line.

Now I have to go to the information page Digitization in Bremen Found eight specific examples, some of which I would like to present to illustrate Industry 4.0. All examples are from the same page and partially copied.
Example 1: Ancillary cost bills are time-consuming for Bremen Airport – for the more than 100 individual transactions, meter readings for water and gas must be read and billed. With digital meter reading and intelligent document management, the airport was able to save an enormous amount of time.
Example 2: Robots are becoming more complex and more powerful. A Bremen logistics company made use of technical progress to transport returns of online orders fully automatically through a warehouse. This saves time and money and takes the strain off employees.
Example 3: An industrial service provider in Bremen uses the cloud in a targeted manner to allow distributed teams to work with workflows. All work processes relating to HR and personnel are completely relocated online. The employees of the personal office are located all over Germany and there is little need for coordination.
Example 4: Monitoring heavy transports from several thousand kilometers away for progress, transport damage or improper handling – a Bremen logistics service agency dreamed of this for a long time. With an Industry 4.0 project, logistics monitoring was introduced, which made it possible to monitor the load.
All examples are detailed on the page The Digitization of Bremen listed. In conclusion, I will go into the examples again.

Conclusion

The article deals with the question: What is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 is a term that is primarily a project of the federal government and is not actually used abroad. This is the fourth industrial revolution, which deals with the networking and intelligence of machines. There are already numerous examples such as chips and monitoring systems for freight as well as machines that can automatically maintain. People should increasingly take on the role of watchdogs. With Industry 4.0, problems such as big data and data protection are becoming more relevant than before for German companies.
Reading tip: Article on agile production
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Der Beitrag What is Industry 4.0 – definition erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

What is Industry 4.0

There are numerous definitions of Industry 4.0 and I also ask myself: What is Industry 4.0? So says, for example BDI : Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After mechanization (Industry 1.0), mass production (Industry 2.0) and automation (Industry 3.0), the Internet of Things and Services is now finding its way into production. Industry 4.0 technologies enable outstanding growth opportunities and competitive advantages for Germany as a business location. Forecasts assume that companies can use Industry 4.0 to increase their productivity by around 30 percent.
The Gabler Business Lexicon sees it more as a marketing term: “Industry 4.0” is a marketing term that is also used in science communication and stands for a “future project” by the German federal government. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the individualization or hybridization of products and the integration of customers and business partners into business processes.
That too Magazine viernull describes the development of Industry 4.0 with a historical development: “Industry 4.0” stands for the “fourth industrial revolution”. Before that, there must have been three other revolutions – at least this is what the creators of the term suggest: “Industry 1.0” means the era of mechanics that began in the 18th century, “Industry 2.0” refers to the era of electronics (20th century). Century) and “Industry 3.0” according to this logic stands for the increasing automation of industry through the use of office IT since the 1970s.
So it seems that this is the fourth industrial revolution and there have been three more. I have summarized examples and metaphors for this in the following illustration.

Components of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is also a kind of collective term for many services and products. On the side of the BDI I have summarized these in the following figure. Certainly these are not 100% complete, but mostly the core aspects. Since it is primarily a term from the government, I mainly used the government pages and the BDI as sources.

With Social machines says the BDI: As in social networks on the Internet, intelligent machines exchange information with one another. You can organize yourself independently and coordinate processes and appointments together.
Global Facilities says according to the BDI: Machines do not only exchange data within a production facility. A company’s machines are also networked with systems from suppliers and customers. If a supplier fails, alternative suppliers are analyzed in real time with regard to their capacity utilization or costs and automatically commissioned.
Of the Augmented operator means people as “watchdogs”. So says the BDI: In the smart factory, people remain a central part of production. As an “augmented operator”, he controls and monitors the production processes in the production network.
Smart Products means that every produced part has a chip with it, which contains or sends information about it. V irtual production thinks that there will be abstract and virtual images of factories. Unfortunately, there is hardly a clear example on the subject and I am currently not in a position to describe it better. If you have anything about it, feel free to write it in the comments.
Smart Services thinks that in the future billions of intelligent products will be connected to the Internet during their service life and huge amounts of data ( Big data ) about your own operating and product status in a data cloud.
Industry 4.0 largely stands for networking and the intelligence of machines. It is hardly an argument that this fact leads to a lot of data and that the term big data is therefore closely linked to Industry 4.0 as well as topics relating to data protection. Read more on the Page of the BDI and definitely take a look at my book suggestions Digitization in medium-sized companies .

Examples of Industry 4.0

But what exactly is Industry 4.0 and what is not? In the following I have looked for examples and show some fictional examples as well as real scenarios from Bremen.

That’s what he says Industry signpost : An example of Industry 4.0 is when “The parts know who they are”. This “intelligent factory” is called “Open Integrated Factory Showcase. It shows the networking of production and IT. The special thing about the factory is that the workpieces inform the machine how they are to be processed.

As an example of this scenario, you also state that a machine can produce 16 different variants of the product. The workpieces contain information about the production process. The parts know who they are and can talk to the system. The parts always go to the correct station and tell it: “I am this part, in this version and now please process me correctly”. So you can use Industry 4.0 to produce a wide variety of product variants on one production line.

Now I have to go to the information page Digitization in Bremen Found eight specific examples, some of which I would like to present to illustrate Industry 4.0. All examples are from the same page and partially copied.
Example 1: Ancillary cost bills are time-consuming for Bremen Airport – for the more than 100 individual transactions, meter readings for water and gas must be read and billed. With digital meter reading and intelligent document management, the airport was able to save an enormous amount of time.
Example 2: Robots are becoming more complex and more powerful. A Bremen logistics company made use of technical progress to transport returns of online orders fully automatically through a warehouse. This saves time and money and takes the strain off employees.
Example 3: An industrial service provider in Bremen uses the cloud in a targeted manner to allow distributed teams to work with workflows. All work processes relating to HR and personnel are completely relocated online. The employees of the personal office are located all over Germany and there is little need for coordination.
Example 4: Monitoring heavy transports from several thousand kilometers away for progress, transport damage or improper handling – a Bremen logistics service agency dreamed of this for a long time. With an Industry 4.0 project, logistics monitoring was introduced, which made it possible to monitor the load.
All examples are detailed on the page The Digitization of Bremen listed. In conclusion, I will go into the examples again.

Conclusion

The article deals with the question: What is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 is a term that is primarily a project of the federal government and is not actually used abroad. This is the fourth industrial revolution, which deals with the networking and intelligence of machines. There are already numerous examples such as chips and monitoring systems for freight as well as machines that can automatically maintain. People should increasingly take on the role of watchdogs. With Industry 4.0, problems such as big data and data protection are becoming more relevant than before for German companies.
Reading tip: Article on agile production
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Der Beitrag What is Industry 4.0 – definition erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

• Work 4.0
• Consulting 4.0
• Leadership 4.0
• Industry 4.0
• Medium-sized companies 4.0

I have explained all of these terms individually and do not want to go into any further detail. However, I would like to take a closer look at the ending 4.0 and provide an attempt to explain it.

What does 4.0 mean – an attempt to explain

The viernull-Magazin.de says: “Web 2.0” seems to be the mother of all “x.0 combinations”. This is especially true for trends that have to do with the internet. We have been using such endings for a long time. For Industry 4.0 it is according to the magazine viernull-magazin.de easy to explain: “Industry 4.0” stands for the “fourth industrial revolution”. Before that, there must have been three other revolutions – at least this is what the creators of the term suggest: “Industry 1.0” means the era of mechanics that began in the 18th century, “Industry 2.0” refers to the era of electronics (20th century) Century) and “Industry 3.0” stands according to this logic for the increasing automation of industry through the use of office IT since the 1970s.
It is a little more complicated with Work 4.0. Here I found from Robert friend a definition:

• Work 1.0 denotes the beginning industrial society and the first organizations of workers.
• Work 2.0 is the beginning of mass production and the beginnings of the welfare state at the end of the 19th century.
• Work 3.0 covers the period of consolidation of the welfare state and workers’ rights on the basis of the social market economy.
• Work 4.0 will be more networked, more digital and more flexible. What the future world of work will look like in detail is still open. Since the beginning of the 21st century we have been faced with another fundamental change in the mode of production.

I also tried to define Consulting 4.0 in my article, but couldn’t find a definition. Quite simply, there is often no 3.0 or 2.0 for many terms, but 4.0 in this context often simply means the “digitization of something”. Consulting 4.0 could simply mean: We digitize consulting and call it 4.0.

What does 4.0 mean – conclusion

In my conclusion, it does not always make sense to look for 3.0 or 2.0 or 1.0 for every 4.0 ending, as this often does not always exist formally. However, based on Work 4.0 and Industry 4.0, I would like to make a kind of guideline on how terms with the ending 4.0 can be classified.
The table shows that 1.0 is often simply the addition of typical devices. For example, the scissors for the hairdresser or Consulting 1.0 could be the typical face 2 face advice. In 2.0, the work is then supported by technology such as a dictation machine to record customer calls or electronic razors for the hairdresser. In 3.0 these are supported by IT such as iPads or PCs and software such as Excel. 4.0 then means the basic ability of devices to process tasks automatically and even to interact intelligently, such as chess computers or chatbots in customer support.
Of course, it is clear to me that this definition does not apply to all terms, e.g. Web 2.0 is probably not compatible with this definition, but work, industry and consulting 4.0 and certainly many other terms such as administration 4.0 or company 4.0 and house 4.0. You can add the ending to pretty much any noun. However, I hope to be able to give an initial guideline with this attempt at an explanation.

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Der Beitrag What does 4.0 mean as an ending – attempted explanation erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

AGILE production and new business models

Kaufmann (2015, p. 12) shows an initial trend with regard to agile models: The focus with this approach is not exclusively on intelligently communicating machines, but on a fundamental adaptation or even realignment of the (existing) business models. Above all, adapted products and shorter delivery times are taking a step towards agility. The main focus is on increasing quality and shortening delivery times.

Agility in Industry 4.0

The way to agile Industry 4.0 is still a long way. Kaufmann (2015, p. 15) clearly shows that this new, agile industry is still in its infancy. In order to drive further development towards fully agile production, constant cyclical reflection must take place: From machine, operating, product and business data, optimized processes must be carried out using forecasts for the piece-specific or consumption-based billing as well as for services that increase product value or additional products (value-added services) . You have to constantly learn which practices work and which don’t.

In order to remain adaptable at this point, the following approaches are recommended:

• • Iterative and incremental development in defined cycles (e.g. 4 weeks)

• • Delivery of a partial product or product increment after each cycle

• • Feedback and correction after each cycle

• • Iterative changes and detailing of the product requirements after each cycle

• • Fixed budget and resources with variable functionality

• Daily coordination of the development team, also with the stakeholders

Lean ISn’t the same as agile

Even if there is a lean production characterized by very flat hierarchies and many principles act agile, is that Lean Production not completely agile in itself.

In order to be able to better serve customer demands, the production philosophy of “Agile Manufacturing” was created. In response to lean production, the focus here is primarily on meeting flexible customer requirements without incurring new costs or having to cut quality. The idea of the virtual company is the father of the thought: relationships with suppliers should be flexibly and quickly geared to the respective market opportunities.

The Warehouse control is considered to be of little relevance in agile manufacturing. The fulfillment of customer wishes and thus customer satisfaction is given more importance than the pure production volume. So that these demands can be met, needs Agile manufacturing a self-sufficient and intelligently collaborative workforce. The structure can then also be described as an “agile company”.

Agile manufacturing

Here says that Gabler Business Lexicon the following: Agile Manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy that focuses on meeting customer demand through flexible manufacturing practices. Agile manufacturing emerged as a reaction to lean production. It differs in the focus on that Fulfillment of customer requests, without sacrificing quality or additional costs to accept. The idea is based on the concept of the virtual company and aims to build flexible, often short-term relationships with suppliers when market opportunities arise.
To make it clear where this trend is coming from, I recreated a graphic from Slideshare. It shows how agile manufacturing and agile logistics work together effectively. It turns out that a lot of trends have an impact and that production has a long history with many influences around lean, agile and other frameworks.

Scrum and Holacracy in production

On the Production.de portal I found the following: Scrum is the implementation of lean development for project management. The procedure has so far been established primarily in the software industry. A team works step by step across departments on the development of a new product. Due to the complexity of the project, the result cannot be precisely planned in advance. So does Scrum make an agile production?
Scrum in production? Is that possible? That’s what he says items to: Scrum is now being used across the board by all teams throughout production. Small subteams meet daily on a visualization board, they discuss the work packages and the achievement of goals. In doing so, they exchange ideas about what can help them to achieve the goal. The team that takes care of the product transfer from development to production, the Production Engineering team, is now working with Scrum.
Continue to even Holacracy used in production. So Holacray as an example of agile production? The latest example is from the Cinteo company. On his Website says the company : The automotive industry is currently experiencing the most drastic change to date and has to face unprecedented challenges: New mobility requirements, new business models and sources of revenue, new competitors, new regulatory and sustainability requirements, shorter technology cycles and the additional pressure to be able to innovate faster are fundamentally changing what has been happening so far successful value creation and its management. Skills in the areas of digital customer engagement, e-commerce and business model development are critical success factors.
So Holacracy was one way of doing this for the company. So it says on the website: “Holacracy is a third way: It brings structure and discipline to a peer-to-peer workplace. For us this means: effective meeting formats, more autonomy for our employees and a unique decision-making process with constant change and improvement!”
But how does the company implement this? I looked around the website and gathered the following insights: Holacracy is implemented through vision and ideas as well as the inclusion of customer feedback in production. The idea of functional teams, which apparently produce a product end-to-end instead of just looking after a single interface, is also used. Furthermore, many cross-sectional functions were created and KPIs introduced. So much for the information on the website.
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Der Beitrag Agile production in Industry 4.0 erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.